Mickey's Mix Magic, which will have fireworks only on select nights, will debut Friday, Jan. 18, with Mickey's Soundsational Parade to follow starting on Jan. 25.

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“Mickey’s Mix Magic” lights up the night at Disneyland Park with a new high-energy projection show celebrating the one and only Mickey Mouse. The nightly extravaganza creates a family-fun dance party throughout the park with “DJ” Mickey spinning the new celebration song, “It’s a Good Time” along with new, fun takes on favorite Disney songs. On select nights, “Mickey’s Mix Magic” is enhanced with the addition of fireworks. Disneyland Resort is located in Anaheim, Calif. (Courtesy of Joshua Sudock/Disneyland Resort)

Disneyland plans to roll out a new nighttime spectacular on Main Street USA that is heavy on projection mapping technology but without fireworks most nights as Sleeping Beauty Castle undergoes a months-long rehabilitation wrapped in construction scaffolding.

Mickey’s Mix Magic swaps Disneyland’s familiar nightly fireworks show for a laser, lighting and projection show set to a new musical score. The projection show will transform the buildings along Main Street U.S.A. and the facade of It’s a Small World into a canvas painted with animated scenes set to music.

The new show will be complicated by the upcoming downtime for the Fantasmic nighttime spectacular and the water screens on the Rivers of America that normally serve as a secondary stage for the projection mapping imagery employed during nighttime spectaculars.

Mickey’s Mix Magic is the marquee attraction in a new lineup of entertainment at the Disneyland Resort that includes a revamped parade, food festival, seasonal events tied to Valentine’s Day and the Lunar New Year and a yearlong celebration of Mickey Mouse’s 90th birthday.

“Mickey’s Mix Magic” lights up the night at Disneyland Park with a new high-energy projection show celebrating the one and only Mickey Mouse. The nightly extravaganza creates a family-fun dance party throughout the park with “DJ” Mickey spinning the new celebration song, “It’s a Good Time” along with new, fun takes on favorite Disney songs. On select nights, “Mickey’s Mix Magic” is enhanced with the addition of fireworks. Disneyland Resort is located in Anaheim, Calif. (Courtesy of Joshua Sudock/Disneyland Resort)

“Mickey’s Mix Magic” lights up the night at Disneyland Park with a new high-energy projection show celebrating the one and only Mickey Mouse. The nightly extravaganza creates a family-fun dance party throughout the park with “DJ” Mickey spinning the new celebration song, “It’s a Good Time” along with new, fun takes on favorite Disney songs. On select nights, “Mickey’s Mix Magic” is enhanced with the addition of fireworks. Disneyland Resort is located in Anaheim, Calif. (Courtesy of Joshua Sudock/Disneyland Resort)

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“Mickey’s Mix Magic” lights up the night at Disneyland Park with a new high-energy projection show celebrating the one and only Mickey Mouse. The nightly extravaganza creates a family-fun dance party throughout the park with “DJ” Mickey spinning the new celebration song, “It’s a Good Time” along with new, fun takes on favorite Disney songs. On select nights, “Mickey’s Mix Magic” is enhanced with the addition of fireworks. Disneyland Resort is located in Anaheim, Calif. (Courtesy of Joshua Sudock/Disneyland Resort)

“Mickey’s Mix Magic” lights up the night at Disneyland Park with a new high-energy projection show celebrating the one and only Mickey Mouse. The nightly extravaganza creates a family-fun dance party throughout the park with “DJ” Mickey spinning the new celebration song, “It’s a Good Time” along with new, fun takes on favorite Disney songs. On select nights, “Mickey’s Mix Magic” is enhanced with the addition of fireworks. Disneyland Resort is located in Anaheim, Calif. (Courtesy of Joshua Sudock/Disneyland Resort)

The Get Your Ears On birthday celebration will be the theme for a parade, nighttime spectacular and a Valentine’s celebration as well as food and merchandise throughout both parks.

Nighttime Spectacular

Mickey’s Mix Magic dance party starts Friday, Jan. 18, with DJ Mickey spinning alternate electro-swing house music takes of familiar Disney songs as well as a new theme song, “It’s a Good Time.”

The projection show will employ more than two dozen video projectors and nearly 100 rooftop-mounted lighting fixtures throughout the park. The show features original animation of Disney characters amid kaleidoscopic patterns projected on the storefronts along Main Street USA and the Small World facade.

The water screens on the Rivers of America will serve as another viewing area for Mickey’s Mix Magic after Fantasmic returns from its seasonal rehabilitation, which runs from Monday, Jan. 21 until March.

Fireworks will be added to the Mickey’s Mix Magic projection show on select nights, which is expected to be on busy holidays and weekends.

“We created this as a non-fireworks show and then added fireworks to it,” said Steven Davison, executive creative director for parades and spectaculars at Disney parks. “Some nights there are fireworks and it’s kind of crazy. Some nights it’s a big dance party.”

The Get Your Ears On celebration continues at the Tomorrowland Terrace with a nightly dance party featuring Disney characters dancing to popular Disney songs.

The 2011 Soundsational parade went on hiatus last year to make room for the Pixar Play Parade, which moved from Disney California Adventure to Disneyland in 2018. The parade’s popularity and longevity surprised Davison.

“I thought it was going to last two years, maybe three years” Davison said. “It’s still going strong today. It’s really a fun and infectious parade.”

The returning Soundsational parade will be led by a 25-foot-long float inspired by a super-sized version of a classic Mickey Mouse wooden pull toy. Chip and Dale will follow with a 12-foot-tall birthday cake float celebrating the twin birthdays.

A marching drum line will add a live beat to a procession of Disney characters, including Aladdin, Peter Pan and Mary Poppins.

The parade will feature more than two dozen Disney characters and more than 60 additional performers.

The design of the parade floats were inspired by musical styles ranging from military marches to Latin rhythms.

The Soundsational floats include:

Never Land unit with Tinker Bell playing mushrooms with her magic wand drum sticks

Princess and the Frog unit with a riverboat made from musical instruments

Get Your Ears On food celebrating Mickey Mouse’s 90th birthday includes Mickey’s Party Hat Macaron available at Cozy Cone in Cars Land at Disney California Adventure Park in Anaheim, CA, on Wednesday, Jan 16, 2019. The treat is filled with candy confetti that falls on to the plate when it’s cracked open. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Get Your Ears On food celebrating Mickey Mouse’s 90th birthday includes a Steamboat Willie-themed candied apple available at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, CA, on Wednesday, Jan 16, 2019. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Get Your Ears On merchandise celebrating Mickey Mouse’s 90th birthday includes a new Steamboat Willie-themed popcorn bucket exclusively for annual passholders available at the Disneyland Resort later this month. Photographed in Anaheim, CA, on Wednesday, Jan 16, 2019. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Get Your Ears On merchandise celebrating Mickey Mouse’s 90th birthday includes new pins available at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, CA, on Wednesday, Jan 16, 2019. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Get Your Ears On merchandise celebrating Mickey Mouse’s 90th birthday includes new t-shirt designs available at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, CA, on Wednesday, Jan 16, 2019. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Get Your Ears On merchandise celebrating Mickey Mouse’s 90th birthday includes a canvas bag with various Mickeys available at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, CA, on Wednesday, Jan 16, 2019. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Get Your Ears On merchandise celebrating Mickey Mouse’s 90th birthday includes tumblers available at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, CA, on Wednesday, Jan 16, 2019. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Get Your Ears On merchandise celebrating Mickey Mouse’s 90th birthday includes new t-shirt designs available at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, CA, on Wednesday, Jan 16, 2019. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Disney’s push for ‘potion purple’ includes Taro Pancakes available at River Belle Terrace at Disneyland in Anaheim, CA, on Wednesday, Jan 16, 2019. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Get Your Ears On food celebrating Mickey Mouse’s 90th birthday includes the Foot Long Hot Diggity Dog available in Mickey’s Toontown at Disneyland in Anaheim, CA, on Wednesday, Jan 16, 2019. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Get Your Ears On merchandise celebrating Mickey Mouse’s 90th birthday includes new mugs available at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, CA, on Wednesday, Jan 16, 2019. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Get Your Ears On merchandise celebrating Mickey Mouse’s 90th birthday available at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, CA, on Wednesday, Jan 16, 2019. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

The Share Your Ears cheeseburger combo is the showstopper with a large burger topped with two mini burgers that create the familiar three-circle Mickey Mouse shape.

Each slice of the Spectacular Mickey Cheesy Pizza has a large slice of pepperoni connected to two smaller pepperoni slices that make for a not-so-hidden Mickey that cries out to be posted immediately to Instagram.

The new Get Your Ears On line of merchandise features a modern take on the classic pie-eyed images of Mickey and Minnie.

“It’s really just about celebrating Mickey and celebrating being at the park,” said Disneyland merchandise strategist Ashley Cortez. “We’re really just looking at what Mickey was in 1928 to what he is today and just celebrating all the years in between.”

Brady MacDonald is a freelance writer based in California. He’s covered the theme park industry for more than 25 years. He writes about travel, entertainment, business, food and beer. His work has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, New York Newsday, Philadelphia Inquirer, Seattle Times, Orlando Sentinel and Orange County Register.